1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to portable digital data devices and systems, and more particularly, to devices, systems and methods for converting analog data to digital data or digital data to analog data for enabling speech recognition processing on a portable data device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless data devices are now common. These portable data devices can manage personal information such as contacts, appointments and to-do lists, act as global positioning system (GPS) devices and run multimedia software. Examples of these devices include Windows™ Pocket PC devices which have an operating system created by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Other examples of wireless devices include the Treo™ device created by Palm, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., and the Blackberry™ device created by Research in Motion of Ontario, Canada. Other portable data devices include portable voice recorders and Smartphones such as the Nokia 6230 cellular phone.
Generally, these devices are small digital devices with internal memory, some limited computer processing power (as compared to desktop and laptop devices), and communications capacities such as cellular, Bluetooth, or WiFi communications among others. These devices may also include an input mechanism scaled down to the form factor of the device, e.g., a compact keyboard operated by a user's thumbs.
Many of the devices allow the user to communicate through the global computer network, e.g., the Internet, including sending and receiving e-mail. The devices are generally used in a portable and mobile environment where it is often times difficult, if not impossible, to easily type into the device in order to originate or answer e-mail by example.
It would be ideal for these devices to allow the user to employ speech and/or voice recognition software as a means of communicating with the device (for example, to send or reply to e-mail or to dictate a note in digital text form). However, due to the limited size of the device, current technology does not allow the device to incorporate the more powerful processors that would be necessary to reliably convert analog signals (such as audio voice signals) to digital text data.
In light of the above, a need exists for techniques to enable analog audio signals inputted to a portable data device to be converted to digital text data. A further need exists for techniques to enable speech recognition processing on a portable data device with limited processing power.